Welsh may have to separate recycling

Welsh home-owners may find themselves in need of multiple recycling bins for home use following a new EU ruling, bbc.co.uk reports.

Today, over half of Welsh councils allow residents to put all their recycling into just one bag, but the new directive from Brussels will render this practice obsolete by 2015.

This means that the number of kerbside collections – in which paper, tins, glass and plastics are separated into individual bags or boxes – could increase significantly.

A handful of councils – including Powys, Pembrokeshire, and Carmarthenshire – already insist that there is some separation of recycled waste before collection, but the majority already have kerbside sorting measures in place.

The Welsh government is understood to be in favour of kerbside sorting and would like all councils to embrace the practice, but it has not made this an official requirement.

“This method of collection reduces residual waste and results in the collection of high levels of clean recyclables that can be reprocessed into new products. It also tends to be better value for money than co-mingled kerbside approaches,” said a spokesperson on behalf of environment minister John Griffiths.

Recycling targets in Wales are steep, with the country aiming to recycle over half its waste (52 per cent) by 2013 and a massive 70 per cent by 2025.

New figures supplied by the Welsh government however, show that the country looks to be on target; recycling some 44.7 per cent of household waste in 2010/11, reports letsrecycle.com.